A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback [Hardcover]

Jim Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

Imagine a procedure versatile enough to treat epilepsy, autism, attention deficit disorder, addictions, and depression with no drugs or side effects; to bring patients out of vegetative states; and to improve everything from golf scores to opera singers' voices. These are only some of the claims made for neurofeedback, a controversial but effective treatment that is revolutionizing the way an incredibly diverse range of medical and psychological conditions are treated.

In A Symphony in the Brain, Jim Robbins traces the fascinating, untold story of the development of neurofeedback, from its discovery by a small corps of research psychologists, to its growing application across the country and around the world, to present battles for acceptance in the conservative medical world. Offering a wealth of powerful case studies, accessible scientific explanations, and dramatic personal accounts, Robbins journeys through a remarkable field, which he brings to the public eye for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Can you fix your own neurologic problems without resorting to drugs? Science writer Jim Robbins suggests that some such conditions--like epilepsy, autism, and depression--could yield to a recently developed technique called neurofeedback. His book A Symphony in the Brain describes the process, its evolution from the 1970s fad of biofeedback, its practitioners, and some of its success stories. Using computers to quickly provide information on real-time EEG, practitioners train patients to control global or local brain states--or so the theory goes. Unfortunately for its proponents, there are still no rigorous research data showing conclusive results. Robbins makes a good case that the lack of research is due more to scientific turf battles and a drug-dependent medical establishment than to any fault of neurofeedback. Some of the case studies he explores, of children and adults brought out of comas or trained to reduce their epileptic seizure frequency, suggest that we ought to look more deeply and rigorously into the technique. Whether it works can only be determined by controlled studies, which may be forthcoming. In the meantime, Robbins provides contact lists and additional research information for interested readers, as well as the inspiration to pursue a potentially life-saving treatment. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

If you thought biofeedback was a passing fad, freelance journalist Robbins will enlighten you. Far from a 1970s fringe treatment, neurofeedback (as it has been renamed) is being used to treat everything from autism and fetal alcohol syndrome to attention deficit disorder, manic-depression, stroke and menopausal symptoms. Despite numerous accounts of dramatic improvements of patients afflicted with a wide variety of conditions, the pharmaceutically oriented medical community is only now beginning to acknowledge its effectiveness. The treatment has been marginalized all these years because, like acupuncture, researchers don't understand exactly how it works. Robbins details the fascinating medical history of the therapy, tracing it back to French physician Paul Broca's discovery of the region in the brain where speech originates. At the heart of this riveting story are the people whose lives have been transformed by neurofeedback, from the doctors and psychologists who employ it to the patients who have undergone treatment. Robbins introduces Dr. Barry Sterman, whose 40 years of research supports the use of neurofeedback to treat epilepsy; Jesse DeBoer, who was born with severe brain damage and can now, at 19, function on the level of a learning-disabled person; and school principal Linda Vergara, who teaches grade school students to train their brains instead of using Ritalin to treat attention deficit disorders. Here, too, are the conflicts that have both enlivened neurofeedback and limited its use, much of which Robbins attributes to a lack of funding as he emphatically defends this promising treatment. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr; 1 edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871138077
• ISBN-13: 978-0871138071
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Robbins, a free-lance writer for more than thirty years, lives with his family in Helena, Montana. He has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times since 1980, and has written for numerous magazines from Conde Nast Traveler to Smithsonian. He has carried out assignments, in Europe, Mongolia, Peru, Chile, Mexico and across North America, especially the Rocky Mountain West. He is the author of four books of non-fiction, and is at work on a fifth. His writing interests fall into two main camps: the environment and the human central nervous system. He considers the fact that he has been able to freely indulge his curiosity and get paid for it, one of his greatest accomplishments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Background of the Developement of Neurofeedback, January 24, 2001

By 

Mitchell Small (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback (Hardcover)

While this is not a clinical manual for the use of Neurofeedback, Jim Robbins does expect his readers to be intelligent. This in itself is quite a departure from a lot of other books on the topic. The author does provide enough information for a person being exposed to the concepts of Neurofeedback for the first time to follow the technical aspects of the work. Robbins traces the scientific roots of Neurofeedback (NF), from Pavlov to today, while showing that as a science, it has matured beyond the shortcut to Nirvana it was touted as in the early years of its use. Through biographies of the modern founders of Neurofeedback and actual case histories of successful uses of NF in treating a variety of disorders, Robbins tries to show the serious side of Neurofeedback.

The book also touched me personally. I and another family member have ADD / ADHD and are using NF to control our symptoms. I started reading the book looking for more information on the actual process. I found this book is the start of the road in learning about Neurofeedback and would consider it essential reading for anyone interested in how NF may be used. I was left with the feeling of promise that NF holds for the future of medicine.

Robins also delves into some of the more controversial aspects of NF, including the use of NF to enhance our everyday lives and open our minds. This is the aspect that gave NF a bad reputation early on and Robbins mentions it, but does not heavily promote it. He presents it in the spirit that NF may have a place beyond purely clinical uses.

Overall, the book is well balanced and Robbins does a credible job of promoting the useful aspects of Neurofeedback while maintaining the proper distance from the fringe groups that gave NF such a bad reputation that conventional medicine still does not give the field the respect it deserves.

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changing the Brain without Medications, April 26, 2000

By 

Medical School Professor (Salt Lake City, Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback (Hardcover)

This is an exciting new book that describes the startling technology of brain wave training. Called EEG biofeedback, or neurofeedback, the book describes the history of how this technology developed. It then details the many areas of application, such as ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities, epilepsy, head injuries, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, addictions, sleep disorders, stroke rehabilitation, and even assisting patients to come out of coma! It is a very readable book, filled with interesting case examples. It is hard to read this book without feeling the excitement that this fascinating technology creates for changing brain dysfunctions and dramatically changing people's lives. It includes a list of web sites for learning more, obtaining detailed references to the scientific literature, and identifying qualified referral sources. I highly recommend this book

91 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Harmonic Brain Functioning, August 19, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback (Hardcover)

I became interested in this book from the perspective of a long-term meditator. I have read many many studies of how meditation improves brain wave patterns, and provides many psychological and physiological benefits. So I was curious about what neurofeedback could do. This book provided an excellent, complete review of the subject. I highly recommend that you study it.

Neurofeedback is based on a variety of methods, but they all include giving a person positive and negative reinforcement about their brain wave patterns at different frequencies. Based on clinical experiences, some brain wave patterns provide more calmness, while others provide more clarity, while others encourage creativity. The field has built up based on trial and error beginning with insights from animal research, often done with cats. Often, this treatment is combined with psychological counseling and behavioral reinforcements of other types. Sometimes dietary imbalances that affect brain chemistry are addressed, as well. How neurofeedback treatment is administered depends on the practitioner. There is no government licensing or certification in the field. Many types of equipment are used. Some even allow you to do the treatment on your own at home, with an investment as low as $950. The experience and skill of the practitioner seem to add value though.

This field should be distinguished from biofeedback. That process (which is also unlicensed and unregulated for practitioners) focuses on giving patients feedback on things like how warm their hands are, primarily as a mechanism to help people reduce stress. Cold hands can be one sign of stress. By learning to induce more relaxed states, many patients improve from various psychological ailments that involve excess stress. Neurofeedback measures the brain waves themselves (that which directs the body) rather than the outcome of the brain waves (what the body is doing).

The book details many interesting cases of great improvement in Attention Deficit Disorder and its near cousin, AHDH (which includes hyperactivity), alcoholism, epilepsy, depression, autism, and high performance (such as opera singing). Each one seems to require a different application of neurofeedback, and is specialized in by different practitioners. One of the encouraging things about the book is a complete list of research reports, descriptions of which practitioners treat which areas, and ways to get more information from web sites and manufacturers. The author also tried neurofeedback and reports his positive and negative experiences. He also looked for failures, and describes those.

The main drawback of neurofeedback is that it developed outside of the medical community, so a full set of definitive studies of it remain to be done. So far, NIH has not sponsored any research in this area although it has received grant applications. My own impression is that this would be a good area for NIH to sponsor research in. If efficacy is established, many more researchers would become involved and the field would improve more rapidly. If the process cannot be proven to be effective in double-blind tests (properly designed), then people should stop wasting their time and money and move on to something that works better. To me, the combination of promising results of flawed research and the anecdotal evidence suggests that the $10 million to find out more would be well worth the price. For this therapy is relatively inexpensive, and shows promise even in reducing recurrence of criminal behavior among inmates. If this therapy works, we will save a whole lot on drugs, incarceration, education, and wasted lives.

Read this book and see what you think. I certainly identified two people who I think might be good candidates for neurofeedback who aren't doing well with medication and psychiatric help. Perhaps this is what they need. It's certainly worth the money to me to find out.

While you are reading this book, also think about our disbelief stall about the way things work. For decades, we treated stomach ulcers with surgery, stomach lining drinks, and acid-production inhibitors. All helped. For the same decades, some scientists believed that these ulcers were caused by stomach infections of the lining. These scientists were right, and now that's the way most ulcers are treated, and quickly and inexpensively cured. Can it be that we have been discouraging another way of thinking that could help us again? It's certainly possible.